


The Betrayal

by Anonymous



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Cheating, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Non-Sexual Intimacy, smorgasbord of canons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-19 21:55:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14246550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: They'd warned him Dick was a cheat.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have... a bunch of ideas, and I want to practice putting them down. This is the beginning of that.
> 
> For those new to Fanfiction: "/" denotes a romantic or sexual relationship or act, and thus this story may contain incest-related triggers. The fine details of the relationship are ambiguous in this first chapter.
> 
> I tried to read Red Hood and the Outlaws, and ended up being so disgusted with the way the line artist did Starfire that I couldn't continue. So. There are RH&O characters in this series but they may not be done very well.

They’d told him.

They’d told him Dick was a cheat.

He’d never stay with Jason -- not alone, anyway. And now, Dick was in their bed, smelling like the sex that Jason had never been able to give him.

Was it his fault? He’d slipped between the covers so many times, slid an arm up so that his forearm touched Dick’s elbow where it was tucked beneath his head. Dick would smile without opening his eyes and shuffle around so that his shoulders were resting against Jason’s arm and his foot was against his thigh.

And if he was ever aroused, he’d slip away and deal with it on his own. Other bodies lost their comfort when arousal got involved, turning from friends or potential partners to bogeymen. He’d come back, and Dick never made him say why, he just cuddled him.

He’d thought.

He’d thought he -- they -- were okay. He’d thought he was good. Not only  _ enough _ , but cherished and loved and adored.

And now Dick is smelling like sex in their bed.

He can’t say how he  _ knows _ it’s not just Dick’s own smell. That would be bad enough -- but there’s the scent of someone else here. Something primal taps him on the shoulder and says.  _ Cheat _ .

As he watches, Dick wiggles over closer, sticks an arm out from under the covers, and reaches for him. His thumb and forefinger hook around the trousers and tug. There’s a noise of protest from under the covers, and his.

His former partner.

_ His former partner _ lets go and pulls the covers down around his neck. “Where’d you go?”

This isn’t okay.

Dick almost looks innocently confused, but there’s a slight pull of his expression that reeks of fear. It’s fear of being found out, isn’t it? Kory warned him. Babs warned him. Dick cheats. It’s what he does, then he looks at you with this innocence and confusion like it’s  _ you _ who’s done something wrong.

Dick’s an entitled prick.

Dick thinks his prick’s entitled.

And Jason is leaving. He scoops up a handful of his stuff because he’s not coming back here again, not never.

“Jason!” Dick scrambles off the bed. “Are you alright--”

“Fuck off!” Jason yelps, spinning around. Dick’s naked, and there’s a hint of something shiny on his leg. He didn’t even  _ shower _ after his betrayal. It feels like there’s rocks in Jason’s mouth. “This is not my house. This is not my room. You are  _ not _ my partner. You’ve made that abundantly clear!”

“So you  _ didn’t _ want me to have sex with you?” Dick asks nastily. “Why didn’t you say so?”

Jason hears the tone more than the words. “Who would want to fuck you? They’re right. You’re a lying, cheating, slut. And I am  _ out _ .”

He slams to bedroom door on Dick’s nose.

He slams the front door too. It shakes in its frame.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some internal monologue and a couple of flashbacks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canon Smorgasbord, ho! (Here we have some Court of Owls alongside some 80s and 90s Titans, which will be smashed into RH&O.)
> 
> Characterisation note: this Kory considers polyamory normal and ideal, and is quite open to her partners exploring sex with others. This Dick has a rather “whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” mindset… which makes him exceedingly vulnerable in this story. (I enjoy beating him up physically and emotionally. This tale will have a lot of that, because it is extremely self-indulgent. Consider this a warning.)
> 
> I have much to learn with this writing stuff. Please ask me questions you have or tell me about your understanding so I can learn to write more clearly.

He’d known what cheating was, once.

Back when he was Robin to his parents and his friends and family, in and out of costume -- back then, cheating was what the adults did when they went to the loud, smelly restaurants in the cities. It’s what partners did to hurt eachother. It was how love broke.

It’s what caused partners to lose their trust, to break apart, to leave.

It was nothing to do with his family.

It was never going to touch him.

*

Kory--

When his sleeping mind was full of lust for Raven she’d never hurled that word at him, but nonetheless it had almost flayed him alive. Kory had shrugged in her alien way. Embrace your emotions, the shrug of her bare shoulders said as the sheets of their bed fell about her waist.

She thought that little of him. He could control this. He didn’t need her  _ pity _ .

He squeezed his eyes shut.

_ He could _ . 

(He managed it. Raven stopped giving him those dreams. Things almost returned to normal.)

*

He’d had a sense, back when he was Robin child-of-John, that cheating was a thing you did. It’s not. It’s a thing you  _ are _ . Kory already knew it -- had already seen inside him and known he was never going to stay loyal to her.

Why else would she have done nothing more than sigh in irritation when she discovered he’d slept with the illusionist?

It’s pathetic, how he couldn’t control himself.

He’s a  _ joke _ .

*

> _ Dick Grayson, five years old _
> 
> Dick Grayson admired his new birth certificate.  _ Richard Grayson _ . Not  _ quite _ what he’d asked, but close enough!
> 
> “This is what happens when you let a five-year-old name themselves,” said a cross adult voice.
> 
> Great-Grandfather was boring. Luckily, Robin’s parents --  _ Dick’s _ parents!!! -- would never listen to a boring old guy like him.
> 
> “Self-determination, Grandfather.”
> 
> A grunt. “It’s a bad habit.”

*

Kory had never taken him seriously, thank god, but that meant she’d never given him the chance to  _ prove _ himself. He’d been fool enough to want that chance.

Babara Gordon gave him that chance.

He --

Why do they  _ do _ that?

Why do they pounce on him in the field?

The questions make his chest tight and his mouth dry.

There’s only one answer that makes any possible sense. They can see it on him, like Kory did. Like Mirage did. That knowledge that he can’t stay with a single person. He’s a cheat.

*

Surely Jason had known what he was getting into. The other man certainly hadn’t had any interest in sex--until now. And Dick can tell himself however much he likes that he doesn’t want to be a cheater, but that doesn’t change the fact that Jason took one look at how he behaves while making love and--

_ You’re a lying, cheating slut! _

He doesn’t want to be! What the hell had he ever done to deserve this?!?

(So he cheats -- whatever the hell that means, he definitely doesn’t know -- so what. He can’t help it. It’s not his fault.)

Jason had looked into a Dick's heart and seen the void-like blackness hidden there--

*

> _ Robin child of John, four years old: _
> 
> There’s a cow’s heart at the butchers. It’s a dark red, with white stuff all over it. Robin leans into the warmth of mother’s leg.
> 
> “What’s the white icky stuff?”
> 
> “It's fat,” the butcher answers.  
> 
> 
> Robin’s frown and nose scrunch up, like the butcher doesn't know what's what. “Hearts are black actually.”
> 
> Mother pulls Robin back and gives her order to the butcher. After they purchase and deliver the sausages they'd been sent for, she sits down and holds his hands.
> 
> “You’re a very special person, little Robin. Most humans have red and white hearts, but yours--”
> 
> She taps Robin’s chest, up top, near the heart.
> 
> “And your father’s are red, black and white.”
> 
> “Because we’re special?”
> 
> Mother smiles sadly, she hugs very, very tight. It's safe, like being wrapped in a heated blanket, and no dangerous whispers can get past her.  
> 

*

Jason’s boots hit the ground with vibrating stomps. Dick buries his head in his pillow and screams.

He’s done  _ nothing _ to encourage this.

This is just the way he is.

It’s not  _ his _ fault.

* * *

Jason spends the first 28 hours or so enraged -- with Dick, with himself, until the words trickle through the fire and brimstone and coalesce into meaning. He doesn’t want to let Dick’s words make any kind of sense, honestly -- he’d rather let himself hate.

But for a moment he tries to work out the meaning behind Dick’s words--

> “So you  _ didn’t  _ want me to have sex with you? Why didn’t you say so?”

\-- and then it hits him like a falling piano.

For all his perceptiveness and abilities as a detective, Dick has trouble distinguishing shapeshifters from his lovers. Worse still -- there are people out there who know that weakness. If he has half a drop of faith in Dick (and he does) then  _ someone’s _ taken advantage Dick's trust. Badly.  


 


End file.
